NXT – August 7, 2013: Wrestling Is Fun
NXT
Date: August 7, 2013
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Tom Phillips, Alex Riley
Tonight is a big night on NXT as we have a double main event. Dean Ambrose is defending his US Title against Adrian Neville and Bo Dallas is defending the NXT Title against Leo Kruger. Tonight sounds like it’s going to be focusing on in ring action instead of storytelling which should make for a good show. Let’s get to it.
The opening video talks about what we’re getting tonight. There’s also a dance off between Emma and Summer Rae.
Before the first match we’re told that Tyler Breeze IS IN THE BUILDING! WOO!
US Title: Adrian Neville vs. Dean Ambrose
Neville is an NXT Tag Team Champion but for the sake of clarity only Ambrose will be referred to as champion. Dean shoves him into the corner to start but Neville shoves him right back. Adrian fires off kicks in the corner but Dean rubs forearms across his face to escape. A headscissors puts the champion down for a second but he pops up, flips forward across the ring and comes out of the corner with a cross body for two.
Neville hooks an armbar but Dean smacks him in the face to escape. Adrian comes back with a quick slam and loads up the Red Arrow but Dean gets away before it launches. Out to the floor they go and Ambrose clotheslines him down as we take a break. Back with Dean dropping an elbow for two and ramming a knee to the ribs. A running dropkick to the chest gets two for the champion and it’s off to a surfboard hold.
Dean chops away and sends him across the ring in a hard whip. A belly to belly suplex gets two and we hit the chinlock. Back up and Adrian hits a hard forearm before avoiding a charge in the corner. A high cross body gets two and a quick running hurricanrana sends Dean to the outside. Neville hits a BIG corkscrew dive to take Dean out and there’s the Red Arrow but Shield runs in for the DQ at 8:20 shown of 10:05.
Rating: C+. Nice match here with Neville getting to look good but not win the title. It’s a very simple idea that doesn’t change anything officially but gives Neville a rub which is what stars can do in NXT. It’s a good sign that Neville can wrestle a full match with more than just the high spots as the inability to do so has sunk a lot of other wrestlers.
Post match the Shield beats Neville down but Corey Graves and Xavier Woods make the save.
Enzo Amore and Colin Cassidy come up to Scott Dawson and Sylvester Lefort to offer encouragement before Dawson’s match with Mason Ryan. Lefort and Dawson leave and the same guy who was making faces behind Breeze last week does a fist pump behind Amore and Cassidy.
Time for the dance contest and you should already know what’s coming here. It’s exactly what you would expect: Summer does classically trained dance moves, Emma responds with stuff like the Running Man and the Chicken Dance and gets YES chants. They keep this one fast paced though with the music never stopping and several back and forth dances. Summer says stop the music and is told she got served.
She wants her real music and does the Fandango, instantly winning over the crowd. Emma says play her music, takes off the t-shirt she was wearing to reveal her usual attire and does her dance to win the contest. Apparently this makes Emma #1 contender. Summer attacks her after losing as you would expect. This ran longer than I would have expected at about six minutes, but it was much more entertaining than most WWE dance offs. They kept this moving fast enough that it never got stupid which is where WWE falls off. Also it doesn’t hurt that Emma and Summer look like they do as opposed to say, Vickie.
Leo Kruger promo, talking about being laughed at as a kid. Tonight when he wins the NXT Title, people will be laughing at Bo Dallas instead.
Danny Burch vs. Tyler Breeze
Breeze comes to the ring like he’s walking a runway and with camera shots straight out of Zoolander. The fans think the entrance was awesome. The bell rings twice for some reason and Burch comes out swinging. Breeze ducks most of the shots and hits a quick enziguri. After taking some pictures of himself it’s the spinwheel kick for the pin at 42 seconds. Breeze is so over the top that he’s awesome.
Breeze lays on Burch to take another picture.
Bo Dallas finally starts acting like a heel by patronizing Renee Young, saying Cesaro has a bright future. Also the loss last week is on Sami Zayn for not being in there as a champion. Dallas claims to be a former tag team champion and doesn’t remember filling in for an injury. We get a few bars of Don’t Stop Bo-lieveing and he walks off. THIS is the kind of character he needs to be, not whatever he’s been doing for a few weeks now.
Graves/Neville/Woods vs. Shield and Mason Ryan vs. Scott Dawson next week.
Tyler Breeze has LEFT the building.
NXT Title: Bo Dallas vs. Leo Kruger
Dallas can go up about 85 levels on the heel scale if he records Don’t Stop Bo-lieving as his entrance music. Kruger goes straight to the floor to start but suckers Bo into an attack in the corner. The fans are entirely behind Kruger here as you would expect in a Bo Dallas match. Bo comes back with some dropkicks and a cross body followed by a northern lights suplex for two. We hit an armbar on Kruger as the fans chant boring. Kruger fights him off and sends Bo to the floor for a baseball slide as we take a break.
Back with Leo whipping Bo hard into the corner for two. A snap suplex gets the same and Kruger drives in elbows to the head. Dallas breaks up a superplex attempt and scores with a middle rope clothesline. Fans: “YOU STILL SUCK!” Some clotheslines put Leo down but a tornado bulldog is only good for two. A reverse DDT gets two more and Bo pounds on Leo in the corner, basically turning heel mid match.
Kruger starts Hulking Up and fires off right hands of his own followed by a spinebuster for no cover. The Slice connects for two and Kruger puts on the GC3 but Bo FINALLY makes a rope. Kruger pounds away but his top rope splash hits knees. Dallas wraps his leg around Leo’s head and cranks on the arm in a kneeling submission hold, drawing the tap out at 8:36 shown of 11:14.
Rating: B-. It’s a really good sign that Bo is turning heel as the fans were hating his face push. Turning him into a condescending self obsessed jerk is a great way to make him a heel, as long as they stick with it this time. Kruger looked good and has potential as a good guy, but the voice isn’t going to do him any favors.
Overall Rating: B. This show can be summarized in one word: fun. Nothing was too serious here, the matches were good, Tyler Breeze is so over the top that it’s hard to not chuckle at him, the dance off was amusing and Dallas FINALLY showed signs of being a heel. It’s so nice to be able to just enjoy a wrestling show that doesn’t make you feel like the world is forever changed off a single match. This was a very fun show that flew by, as NXT continues to be awesome.
Results
Adrian Neville b. Dean Ambrose via DQ when Shield interfered
Tyler Breeze b. Danny Burch – Spinwheel Kick
Bo Dallas b. Leo Kruger – Kneeling Elbow Submission
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It’d be a great debut for someone to win the US Title at one of these shows and just debut on Raw with it. Kind of like when titles used to be won at house shows back in the day.